Fox Motorsport’s Archie Bullard hopes to finish his maiden single-seater season strongly at Brands Hatch after continuing his recent GB4 improvement with an impressive recovery drive at Donington Park.
The 19-year-old endured a difficult Qualifying session during the penultimate GB4 round and lined up 26th for Race 1. However, Bullard worked his way through the field to finish 12th, gaining 14 positions and adding another nine points to his championship tally.
Sunday proved considerably more difficult as Bullard retired from both remaining races, but the weekend nevertheless offered further evidence of the progress he has made during the second half of his rookie campaign.
Encouraging testing gives way to difficult Qualifying
Bullard arrived at Donington showing encouraging pace during the pre-event running. He regularly fought within the midfield and climbed as high as ninth during Friday’s opening test session, giving Fox Motorsport reason for optimism before competitive action began.
That followed a gradual improvement across his first year in cars. Bullard entered GB4 directly from karting for 2026 and had already shown signs of closing the gap during earlier events, including an encouraging Oulton Park test during the opening months of his campaign.
“From the start of the weekend, testing was good and we were close to the top 10,” said Bullard to GB4. “Then, we went into qualifying and it really didn’t go our way with P26 and P27.”
A red flag disrupted Bullard during Qualifying and prevented him from completing a representative lap when track conditions and tyre performance were at their strongest. Consequently, he qualified 26th on fastest times for Race 1 and 27th on second-fastest laps for Race 2, leaving him with significant ground to recover in both contests.
The session contrasted sharply with his testing pace and immediately forced Bullard to change his approach for the races.
Bullard gains 14 places in Race 1
Rather than allowing the poor grid position to define his weekend, Bullard focused on maximising the opportunities available at the start and during the opening phases of Saturday’s race.
“I was very focused on the starts and middle parts of the races to making up as many positions as possible,” he said. “The Saturday went well – we had 14 overtakes and were P2 rookie.”
That approach produced one of the largest gains anywhere in the field. Bullard climbed from 26th to 12th during Race 1 at Donington Park, finishing immediately behind Pace Performance’s John O’Donnell and ahead of several drivers who had started considerably further forward.
His recovery also made Bullard the second-highest rookie finisher and delivered nine championship points despite starting on the penultimate row.
The drive continued what has become a particular strength for Bullard at Donington. During the championship’s first visit to the circuit, he produced an even larger recovery in Race 2, climbing from 25th on the amended grid to 10th.
That 15-position gain remains his personal benchmark.
“Looking back at it now, with what happened Sunday, I’m less buzzing than I was on the Saturday,” he said. “It was certainly a good way to end the day on Saturday after such a bad performance in qualifying, [but it] still doesn’t beat the record that I hold of the 15 overtakes at Donington last time!”
Difficult Sunday limits Bullard’s reward
Bullard could not convert the momentum from Saturday into further points on Sunday.
His Race 2 ended early during an incident-filled contest that featured two Safety Car periods. Bullard became involved in incidents during both of the early interruptions and eventually retired from the race.
His reverse-grid finale also ended almost immediately. Bullard’s Fox Motorsport car began dropping fluid on the opening lap before coming to a halt at Coppice, prompting the first Safety Car period and bringing his weekend to an early conclusion.
The double retirement left Saturday’s recovery as the clear highlight, although Bullard believes his recent results provide a more accurate indication of his development than the difficult conclusion to Donington.
Bullard sees clear improvement in rookie campaign
Bullard began 2026 as one of GB4’s least experienced competitors after making the move directly from karting into single-seater racing.
He failed to score during the opening six races at Silverstone and Oulton Park, but his results have improved considerably since then. Bullard has finished in points-scoring positions in six of his last 12 starts, including his first points during the championship’s earlier Donington visit.
“The pace is now competitive,” he said. “It’s just that sometimes things don’t go your way [with] stuff that you can’t control.”
His first Donington weekend represented a notable breakthrough. Bullard finished 19th in Race 1 before charging from 25th to 10th in Race 2 and taking 12th in the finale. Those results delivered his first championship points after two scoreless rounds.
Further points followed as the season progressed, with the latest Donington Race 1 demonstrating his growing confidence when racing through the pack.
That development remains particularly important given Bullard’s limited experience before joining GB4. He only began karting in 2023 before progressing rapidly through the discipline and making his first full transition into car racing with Fox Motorsport this season.
Brands Hatch brings rookie season to a close
Bullard now turns his attention towards Brands Hatch, where GB4 will conclude its 2026 campaign on 26-27 September.
The circuit presents another new race-weekend experience for the Fox Motorsport driver. Although Brands Hatch ranks as his favourite circuit, Bullard has never previously contested a full race event there.
Rather than placing additional pressure on himself for the finale, he intends to approach the weekend with a simpler objective after an eventful rookie campaign.
“Going into the last round, I’m going to forget everything that has happened and just have fun really,” he said. “[Brands Hatch] is my favourite track, but I’ve never done a race weekend there ever before, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Bullard heads into the finale without the championship pressure facing the leading contenders, giving him an opportunity to concentrate on continuing the progress demonstrated during the second half of the year.
Donington ultimately delivered mixed results, with an impressive Saturday recovery followed by two Sunday retirements. However, gaining 14 places from near the rear of the field offered another indication of how far Bullard has progressed since beginning his first single-seater campaign six months earlier.
Brands Hatch now provides one final opportunity to turn that improving pace into results before his rookie GB4 season comes to an end.
